Ariel Lorette

The rain poured down on the city of Grathen in a relentless beat that would marvel the best of drummers. It beat down on the public buildings, with pedestrians streaming in front of, with eyes cast upwards and lips mumbling prayers to Rain Gods. It beat down on the Slums, where thieves were mumbling thanks to their gods for all these people looking up and not at their purses. And it beat down on Ariel Lorette, a girl of 13, escaping from horrors beyond the common person's imagination. Ariel Lorette, with rain streaming down her face and hiding her tears of pain and sorrow and, above all, victory. For Ariel had escaped them. Ariel was free.

Appearance:

Ariel Lorette is a young women, with luxurious black hair, pale white skin, and cold blue eyes. She is attractive, and wears clothing that both amplifies that and are practical. She generally leaves her hair hanging freely down her back, but if on a mission will tie it into a ponytail.

History:

Ariel Lorette was born in a makeshift nursing ward in NECRO's headquarters. She was, quit simply, a revenge child. NECRO had been experimenting with virgin blood in their pursuit of immortality, and as such had kidnapped a virgin girl of 17. They threw he, after telling her about how they were going to sacrifice her because of the fact that she was a virgin, in a cell with a man, who had been an operative of the Church of Light that was trying to find out what was happening at NECRO. Out of revenge and spite, the two made sure the the girl was not a virigin any longer. And when the Orcens came to take the girl for her sacrifice, they found their prisoners in the middle of a dawn tryst.

The Orcens were understandably upset at this, and decided that they would simply take the girl's baby and use the baby as a sacrifice. And so, after the resulting nine months, the baby was born. And thus Ariel Lorette came to be.

Revenge swirled around the baby's head like a halo. It gave the baby purpose, life. Its reddening blur danced and twirled around her, and then picked her to be Revenge's own. She was to be Vengeance Incarnate, a power that only the person's victims could understand fullt. But now all that had to be done was to release the power. All it would take is a single act.

The baby awoke and looked up at the red aura swirling above her head. With a small, happy gurgle, the baby tried to grab the Revenge with her meaty hands.

Yes, the revenge though, secured in Ariel's soul. She will be a powerful.

NECRO kept Ariel moderately comfortable. They gave her warm clothes and three meals a day. There were some people on the streets that had a worse life. But Ariel was being raised like a pig to slaughter. She was given the bare minimum to remain healthy. When Ariel was six, Ariel's mother was deemed no longer necessary to raise Ariel, and was taken away. Ariel, from then on, was raised by the head maid. The head maid, named Ancilla, was never able to have children because she worked at NECRO, and was happy to raise Ariel the rest of the way. But Ariel always knew that when she was 13 she would be sacrificed. She begged Ancilla to help her escape, and, eventually, Ancilla agreed when Ariel was 11. They never made it past the outer wall. NECRO's undead dogs caught them, and herded them back inside. Ariel was not touched, but Ancilla was. Ancilla was tortured and killed before Ariel, the maids, and all the other members and workers of NECRO. Ariel took the rage, and anger, and sadness, and tucked it away inside her heart. She told herself she would escape from this place.

Between that failed escape plot and the her 13th birthday- the day she would be sacrificed- Ariel tried to escape many more times. Occasionally, she would make it past the walls. But every time she would be brought back.

In one of her usual wanderings of the complex, Ariel found a trick brick that opened and revealed a lever. Pulling it opened up a door in the wall. Ariel closed it hurriedly, and left everything as it was before. She would try again tonight. After making sure everything was ready, she returned to the brick, after managing to avoid all of the midnight wanderers, and opened the passage. Excitement almost bursting out of her, she entered the passage and closed the door. She set off down the tunnel, curious about where it would take her.

It deposited Ariel at the gatekeeper's house. She stealthily crept through the dark rooms to the front door. Dismissing the gate as to noisy, Ariel crept slowly up the wall, finding slight handholds and hidden crevices. She was halfway up when she heard the Dogs barking. She frantically tried to go faster, and slipped. She fell in a crumpled heap in the ground. She saw the dark, canine shape running towards her, and tried to climb again. She got about a quarter of the way up before the dog hit her and knocker her off. The dog dragged her back inside by grabbing onto her shirt with its mouth, with 3 other dogs escorting her.

Her 13th birthday finally arrived. The day of her sacrifice. Ariel was tied down to the blood-encrusted alter, splayed out. The sacrifice was to a powerful demon named Thristillafarl. The Head Orcen slit her throat and was about to toss her into the demon's maw when Ariel, who had been dead moments before, burst back into life.

The scene was perfectly normal. The girl, Ariel, was tied down to the alter. Thrullen, the Head Orcen, began the chant to summon Thristillafarl. While the Orcens continued the chant, the Head Orcen took out the ritual knife. A thing of beauty, the knife was everything an evil cultist could want. When the chanting hit a crescendo, and Thristillafarl began to appear, Thrullen slit Ariel's throat. She gave a small gasp as blood flowed freely from her neck, and then her head lolled, and she was dead. Her blood flowed down special channels towards the demon, and the demon materialized fully. Thrullen immediately threw the corpse at the demon's maw, and the demon ate, and was-

"Wait," the demon began, "No. Stop. STOP!" Thristillafarl spasmed once, twice, and blew into a million drops of demon blood and guts. At the very center of the explosion stood Ariel, her eyes alight with a red glow, lips bared in a snarl. And then she roared, and she looked so fearsome that the necromancers fled before her, and hid. Ariel ran, with the red light dimming from her eyes, out of the temple, through the main gates, and onto the streets.

It was raining. The cold drops fell onto her body and wiped away demon gore, and hid her tears of pain, sorrow, and victory.

Ariel took to the streets of Grathen. She, as a poor orphan, had no other choice other than joining the thieves guild. There, she learned many arts. Most she had some knowledge of from her many failed escape attempts. But the thieves honed them to a point of perfection. Ariel grew to feel happy there, and tried to avoid going near NECRO's headquarters, for the memories there were to great. For Ariel, the past was the past. It was done, and she tried to live past that.

When Ariel was 16, the thieves guild sent her to a neighboring city to steal something, as a rite of passage. As she walked among a merchant convoy, a group of undead attacked the convoy. 30 Skeletal warriors were led by a Semblance. It had been sent by NECRO for a variety of reasons, the major one that she would come back and destroy them, with her knowledge of their temple's layout. They had seen her kill a demon, they had seen her return to life, they had ample reason for fear.

Screams and shouts abruptly ended the serene peace of the merchant convoy. Panic spread like wildfire, and merchants fled with the utmost haste, leaving their guards behind to protect them. And so, to earn their pay, the merchant's guards engaged the undead. But it was not a fair fight. There were only 20 guards. They could only buy the merchants enough time to run to the next hill. But Ariel felt a white hot fury rise in her chest. Revenge fueled her, and she went into a Rage. Her eyes glowing red, she picked up a fallen guard's sword and entered the melee. She looked like a demon, with her lips forming incoherent snarls and her eyes flaming. She bashed one's skull in, and then cut another in two. Her intervention prompted the superstitious guards to flee, and Ariel fought against the undead on her own. The skeletons returned to death almost too easily. And then Ariel charged up the hill to the Semblance, where it had been watching the fight.

The Semblance had been a beggar in life, and had no real skill in the sword that NECRO had given it to kill Ariel with. But it had its orders. The two engaged. Neither side had much skill. The Semblance had its impossible strength, and Ariel her agility. It was a long and hard fight, but Ariel managed to cut off the thing's head. With the final stroke, the red of her eyes died, and she looked around in some shock. She had just defeated 30 skeletons and some new undead thing. The guards and merchants praised her, and thanked her for her help. And then they continued, after giving the fallen on both sides the burial rites.

Ariel learned of her ability to go into a berserk rage. And after she did the rite of passage the Theives Guild wanted of her, she returned to Grathen. When she got back, she got praise and admiration from her fellow thieves for the deed. She received the a pair of daggers for completing the rite.

Ariel in her free time started asking around about this ability. No one knew much, until one day, she asked an old priest about it. He knew something of the berserkers and their rages, but little about Ariel's particular ability. He knew that combat launched the berserk rage, but thought that only combat could launch it. Ariel had fought her fellow thieves and a pair of potential rapists before, but had never went into a rage or had glowing red eyes before, except for the night she escaped. The priest suggested that perhaps she raged when the undead were involved. It was then another Semblance attacked her.

Another of these undead things appeared in the doorway. This Semblance bore a sword in an easy way, as if it had bee trained since birth to wield it. It attacked, but Ariel was in another rage. She brought up her feet and pushed herself away from the table before the sword got her. Instead of cleaving through her head, it cleaved through the chair. Ariel rolled onto her feet and brought out her daggers. She flung herself at the thing, but could not get an opening for her daggers to strike. Ariel had learned since her last encounter with theses things that they had a great strength, so instead of parrying, Ariel dodged the blows. But this Semblance was good with a sword, and grew able to predict where she would dodge, and would swing accordingly. Ariel grew tired. She could not go on much longer. In a last ditch effort, she dodged away from it and threw one of her daggers. It sailed threw the air so beautifully, and sank into the Semblance's eye. The Semblance fell to its knees, and made one last swing with its sword, intent on its mission to the last. And then the Semblance died a final death.

Ariel left the scene hurriedly before the soldiers could examine the scene and throw her in jail, but did leave some money to tip the old priest and pay for the damages. She then returned to the streets, with a new goal in mind. It had become clear to her that NECRO must be the ones behind this. What other nercomantic group was in the area and had a reason to kill her?

Goal:

Ariel Lorette's main goal is to defeat the organization that calls itself NECRO. After this is done, she will either try to defeat other necromantic groups, or return to thieving in Grathen. If she does continue to steal, then she will probably keep other necromancers away from Grathen. It is up to the GM

Abilities:

-All abilities that thieves may have in your campaign. If they aren't all ready defined, then she will be able to pickpocket, climb walls, be stealthy, pick locks, and so on. Ariel is a very good thief

-Ariel also has a natural berserk rage. Treat as a "normal" berserk rage, except for the cause- it will only present itself when Ariel is confronted with undead.

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Ariel seems quite powerful; able to handle 30 skeletons and one of your semblances in a single melee, at the age of 16. Nevertheless; interesting lass. I like the idea of a situational berserk against only a particular type of foe.

(Why didnt I reply to this one before? I thought I did. Anyway...) she didn't take on 30 skeletons and a semblance. She took on less than 30 skeletons and a semblance. The guards may be cowards, but they are not completely incompetent. They must have killed some of the skeletons. Maybe Ariel had to kill 20 or so of the skeletons.

Still, she is powerful. But only when berserking- random thugs and rapists on the streets of Grathen would only be fighting a normal girl. Who has a pair of daggers and knows how to use them.

This makes NECRO look really dysfunctional. Why lock up a virgin with a man after telling her that her virginity was the reason she would be a sacrifice? Why wait nearly 14 years to sacrifice Ariel rather than just find another virgin? Why did they wait 3 years to try to kill her after her escape? And why send such a small force against her when she'd already slain a demon right in front of them?

When you say she was a revenge child, does that mean she was used as revenge against her mother? Or that she takes revenge for her mother?

Where does her power come from? Simple berserker rage wouldn't explain the ability to come back to life after being drained of blood. Was it something she came across while imprisoned?

I'd say that perhaps NECRO lacked another cell for the girl, or couldn't imagine that they would dare risk NECRO's wrath if they did challenge them. As for why wait till Ariel was old enough to be sacrificed (all the cliche virgin sacrifices use teens instead of, say, babies- NECRO is no exception), they would want to remain inconspicuous. Too many disappearances would attract too many eyes. And as for the wait, well, NECRO had no idea where Ariel went to after she fled. And they had seen her take out a demon, so they wanted sufficient force to kill her. And they sent a small force because they still had to use stealth- Grathen would probably notice a large group of undead strolling through the streets.

As for the bit about the revenge child, takes revenge for her mother.

Her power comes from her desire to get vengeance. Revenge (perhaps a god like Nemesis? But I was thinking more along the lines of a primal force) picked her as her own, and she gained powers from that.

Does this answer all you questions? I'll go through the sub and clarify a couple of points at a later point.

Freetext

To become a warrior in a tribe. -no food, drink, or sleep for 4 days and nights. -change into special clothes and painted enter hut -slices of skin carved from their chest and shoulders -wooden skewers through the bleeding flesh behind the chest muscles -stout thongs, secured to rafters were tied to skewers -hoisted from floor by these and weights were attached to their feet -twirled around till fell unconscious -when recovered from this, given a hatchet to cut off their little finger -ropes then tied to wrists and force to run in circle like a horse until he passed out -if survive all this he can return to his family in honor knowing he is now a warrior.